Video Review & Installation

So if you own a '14 to '18 5.3 liter-powered Silverado or Sierra and you're looking for hands down the most affordable and easy to install intake system in order to get some decent low and mid-range power gains, then you should be checking out the Airaid Jr. cold air intake tube kit with the red SynthaMax dry filter. At around the $200 price point, this system is a lot more affordable than any other intakes currently available. And that's for a pretty simple reason. You're just replacing the factory tube. You're retaining your factory air box but you're replacing that paper element, again, with that SynthaMax dry filter. Now, what's nice about this setup is the fact that it installs very easily. You can actually get this done with some basic hand tools in about 30 minutes to an hour. And for that reason, I'm gonna give this install a very simple one out of three wrenches on my patented difficulty meter. So, again, if you want some really good curve gains for your truck, you want one of the most affordable intake kits, go ahead and stick around. I'll show you guys how to get this kit installed in just a second and I'll show you exactly what tools you need. All right, to install your new intake, you're gonna need a standard drive ratchet, an 8-millimeter socket, and a Phillips head screwdriver. Optional but helpful tools include a long extension, a 7/8 wrench, and some spray lubricant.All right, so obviously, we have to remove our factory intake tube before we throw our new tube on, right? And that's pretty straightforward. There's two band clamps holding the intake tube in place, one on the factory air box and one on the throttle body. All you're gonna need is that 8-millimeter socket and your ratchet. It's also helpful to have an extension because those clamps are kind of tucked down in there. All right, now before you pull the factory air tube assembly out of the vehicle, you wanna make sure you disconnect both of breather hoses, that's for you crankcase blow-by. There's a little depression you can press underneath here and you can unclip it. All right, once you've pulled the air tube out, you can actually remove these breather hoses entirely. We're not reusing them. The kit does come with new hoses. All right, now that we have our intake tube and those breather hoses removed, the last step is removing the top of our air box so we can install our new air filter. The top of the box is secured with four Phillips head screws so obviously, you're gonna need a Phillips head screwdriver. All right, so we have our factory tube removed and we also removed that crappy paper element. Now you guys can see how the Airaid setup is a pretty nice upgrade. As far as the tubes go, we're ditching this big, ugly box here. This box is responsible for routing all that crankcase blow-by to the throttle body but in the process, it creates some turbulence in there.That's not the case with the Airaid tube. We do get new breather hose fittings. They feed directly into the tube right here. I'll show you guys how to set that up in a second. But basically, you're getting smoother airflow. Now, as far as that paper element filter goes, for lack of better phrasing, again, it's just not that good. The new Syntha filters that they provide from Airaid, they are high flow and they are reusable. You can wash this guy off. You don't have to oil it but it does provide better airflow even still. So, overall, you might get some better throttle response as you might have seen in some of the customer reviews. Now we have to do some work on the table here before we install the new Airaid system, but it's very straightforward. I'll go ahead and show you guys how to get all these fittings set up before we actually install it. All right, so now we got all that OEM junk out of the way, let's go ahead and install the fittings for our breather hoses. Now the elbow shaped fitting is gonna go on the bottom of the intake tube right here and you might have noticed these are plastic threads going into plastic threads. So take your time here, you don't wanna strip them out or cause them to get too loose. You wanna hand tighten these. If you want some assistance, you can use a 7/8 wrench. Just keep in mind the threads may not go in all the way. You just want it tight enough that it's gonna stay snug and it's not gonna come loose.All right, now that we've got those fittings in place, we can install the clamps on our rubber couplers to secure them to the intake tube. Now for the air box side, you're gonna grab one of the medium-sized clamps in the kit and for the throttle body side, you're gonna grab one of these slightly smaller sized clamps in the kit. Now to tighten down this fastener, you're gonna need an 8-millimeter socket. All right, so our intake tube is all set up. Now we're gonna install our filter before we throw our intake tube in place so go ahead and grab your Phillips head screwdriver. All right, so our intake tube is all set up, we can finally install it in the truck. You can leave the breather hoses and fittings aside for now. I'll show you guys how to do that in a moment. Go ahead and grab your 8-millimeter socket and the remaining clamps in the kit, go ahead and get this guy tightened down. Now, when you go to slide these rubber couplers on the intake tube in place, it's helpful to actually have a spray lubricant like PB B'laster. Go ahead and spray the throttle body down as well as the air box, it'll make it a lot easier to get this installed. All right, now that you have your intake tube tightened down, you can install the fittings for your breather hoses on either head. The short tube is gonna go on the passenger's side and the long tube goes on the driver's side. So once you got your breather hoses connected, that'll wrap up this very easy install. And that also wraps up my review of the Airaid Jr. intake tube kit with the SynthaMax Dry Filter, fitting your '14 to '18 5.3 liter-powered Silverado or Sierra. I'm Travis, thanks for watching and keep it right here at americantrucks.com.